1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to laboratory equipment and, more specifically, to a system and method for the virtual control of laboratory equipment.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Electronic laboratory equipment such as power supplies, signal generators, sensors, and the like are common fixtures in modern laboratories. Each piece of equipment may feature one or more display components and one or more control keys. Signal inputs and outputs of the equipment may be connected to various pieces of hardware to perform various tests.
As a laboratory might have a large number of such items of test equipment, the test equipment may be rack-mounted for efficient storage and use. When rack-mounted, the items of test equipment are stacked in a shelf-like configuration, with all display components and control keys located on the front face of the equipment. Input and output cable connectors may be located either on the front face or the back face of the equipment so as to remain accessible while mounted. Accordingly, a user may retain full access to all equipment functions even when the equipment is rack-mounted.
FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a rack-mounting system. Multiple items of equipment 12, 13 and 14 may all be mounted within a single rack 11 with the items stacked vertically and affixed to the rack 11 frame. Thus the front faces of each item of equipment 12, 13, and 14 may remain highly visible and accessible. A set of connecting cables may emerge from the back faces of each item of equipment 12, 13, and 14 and may be appropriately interconnected with each other and/or other laboratory hardware.
While the rack mounting system provides an effective approach for users to interact with the laboratory equipment, collaboration with remote users may be difficult as remote users lack the ability to interact with the display components and control keys of the laboratory equipment.
Most modern items of test equipment are configured with the ability to connect to a general-purpose computer system. For example, equipment may include a general purpose interface bus (GPIB) connector. This standard, as defined by IEEE-488, allows for the control of the equipment via the computer system. Other methods for connecting laboratory equipment to general purpose computers include small computer system interface (SCSI) and universal serial bus (USB) interfaces. Using these connectors and hardware drivers provided by the manufacturer of the equipment, computer programs may be written to allow the function of the equipment to be controlled by the computer system. The intended purpose of this arrangement is to use computer software to automate various testing and experimenting procedures so that the users are spared the repetitive and error prone task of configuring each item of test equipment each time it is used in a different capacity.
However, these connections to general-purpose computer systems are short-ranged and the problem of allowing for collaboration with remote users is not solved by the ability to control the laboratory equipment using local computer systems. As local computer systems may in turn be connected to a computer network, for example, across the Internet, it is possible for a remote user to control the functionality of the laboratory equipment by establishing a connection with the local computer system that is connected to the laboratory equipment and writing computer programs that make use of the various hardware drivers installed on the local computer. However, this process may be time consuming, tedious and may require programming skills on the part of the user.